The Matrix Revolutions is a 2003 American science fiction film and the third and final installment of The Matrix trilogy. The film is a sequel to The Matrix Reloaded. The film was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers and released simultaneously in sixty countries on November 5, 2003. Despite the fact that it is the final film in the series, the Matrix storyline continued in The Matrix Online.

The film was the first live-action film to be released in both regular and IMAX movie theaters at the same time. The Wachowskis were present in Tokyo at the opening of the movie, as were stars Jada Pinkett Smith and Keanu Reeves.

Contents

Plot

The film begins where The Matrix Reloaded ended. Bane and Neo are both unconscious, but Neo shows neural patterns suggesting he is in the Matrix. Morpheus decides to start a search for Neo within the Matrix. Neo finds himself trapped in a subway station; a transition zone between the Matrix and the machine world. At this station, Neo meets a 'family' of programs, including a girl named Sati, whose father tells Neo that the station is controlled by a program called The Trainman, an exile loyal only to the Merovingian who exerts complete control over the subway. When Neo tries to board the train with the family, the Trainman refuses to let him aboard.

Seraph contacts Morpheus on behalf of the Oracle. The Oracle, with a changed appearance, informs Morpheus and Trinity of Neo's confinement. Seraph, Morpheus, and Trinity pursue the Trainman to secure Neo's release. The trio enters Club Hel to confront the Merovingian to release Neo. The Merovingian demands "the eyes of the Oracle" in exchange for Neo's release. Trinity loses her patience and provokes a Mexican standoff, forcing the Merovingian to release Neo.

Troubled by visions of the Machine City, Neo decides to visit the Oracle. She informs him that as the One, he has developed a wireless connection with the Source. All of Neo's abilities - inside and outside the Matrix - exist because of this connection. She characterizes Smith as Neo's exact "opposite" and "negative", who threatens to destroy the Matrix and eventually the Machine City. She states that "everything that has a beginning has an end", and that the war is about to end "one way or another." After Neo leaves the Oracle, a large group of "Smiths," after assimilating Sati and Seraph, arrive to assimilate the unresisting Oracle, gaining her powers of precognition.

In the real world, the remaining crew of the Nebuchadnezzar and the Hammer encounter Niobe's deactivated ship, the Logos, and its crew. They successfully reactivate the ship and begin to interrogate the now awakened Bane, who claims he has no memory of the events of the earlier battle. As the ship captains plan to return to defend Zion, Neo announces that he needs a ship to travel to the Machine City. The captain of the Hammer refuses to allow it, citing his rights as ship's captain. However, Niobe provides him the Logos, rebuking the captain of the Hammer when he attempts to prevent her from exercising the rights he just extolled.

Niobe pilots the Hammer through a series of service tunnels, which are nearly impossible to navigate in order to avoid the Sentinel army. Shortly after departure, they discover that Bane has murdered a crew member and has hidden aboard the Logos. They also come to realize that it was Bane who fired the EMP which disabled the human fleet after it had engaged the Sentinel army. Despite this discovery, they are unable to warn Trinity and Neo. Before the Logos can depart, Bane ambushes Trinity and takes her hostage. Neo fights Bane, who reveals that he is Smith. During the struggle, Bane blinds Neo by cauterizing his eyes with a severed power cable. In spite of his blindness, Neo can see the glowing form of Smith and kills him. Trinity pilots them towards the Machine City.

In Zion, the defenders deploy infantry armed with rocket launchers and Armored Personnel Units. The docks are invaded by a massive horde of Sentinels and two giant drilling machines. Outnumbered and overwhelmed by the attackers, the APUs are unable to hold the Dock, and their leader Captain Mifune is fatally wounded. With his last breath, Mifune tells the Kid, who has been rearming his APU, to open the gate for the Hammer. Encouraged by Mifune, Kid pilots the APU and opens the gate with the help of Link's wife Zee who kills a Sentinel and saves him. The Sentinels are on the verge of overwhelming the remaining humans when the Hammer, with more Sentinels in pursuit, arrives at Zion and sets off its EMP, disabling the Sentinels, but also the remaining defenses. Although they have bought a temporary reprieve, the humans are forced to retreat to the temple's entrance and wait for the next attack, preparing for what they believe will be their last stand.

Nearing the Machine City, Neo and Trinity are attacked by the city's huge defense machines. Neo uses his power to destroy the incoming bombs, but Sentinels overwhelm the ship. To evade them, Trinity flies the Logos into an electrical storm cloud. Her actions disable the Sentinels, but also disable the ship's engines. Above the cloud layer, Trinity sees a glimpse of sunlight and blue sky for the first time. The ship then free-falls directly toward the Machine City, and despite Trinity's attempts to ignite the engines in time, the ship crashes. The impact of the collision fatally wounds Trinity, and she dies in Neo's embrace.

Neo enters into the Machine City to strike a bargain with the Machines, personified by the Deus Ex Machina. Neo warns that Smith is beyond the Machines' control and will soon assault the Source. He offers to help stop Smith in exchange for a ceasefire with Zion: the Machines agree, causing all the Sentinels attacking Zion to stand down and await orders. The Machines provide a connection for Neo to enter the Matrix and confront Smith. In the Matrix, which is now wholly populated by Smith's copies, the clone with the Oracle's powers steps forth, claiming that he has already foreseen his own victory.

The Smith clones stand by and watch while Neo and the primary Smith fight on the streets, through buildings, and in the sky, until they finally brawl in a flooded crater. Neo is outmatched by Smith but refuses to give up. A frustrated Smith continues to attack, but when he suddenly repeats the Oracle's words, "Everything that has a beginning has an end," Neo baits Smith into assimilating him. As the Machines sense the assimilation, Neo's body spasms as a surge of energy enters his body. The Neo-Smith and the rest of the clones then explode, restoring The Matrix and its citizens to normal. In the crater full of water, we now see the Oracle lying on the ground. The waiting Sentinels withdraw from Zion. Neo, having sacrificed himself to save both the Machines and humans, is unplugged from the Matrix and his body is carried away by the Machines.

The Matrix "reboots", repairing the damage caused by Neo and Smith's battle, and without its usual green tint. The cat from the first movie is seen in the same fashion as in the first film and is picked up by Sati. The Architect and the Oracle meet, and agree to unplug all humans who want to be freed, and that peace will last "as long as it can." Sati, who has created a colorful dawn sky in memory of Neo, asks the Oracle if they will ever see him again to which she replies that she believes they will. Seraph asks the Oracle if she knew all along that this would happen, and she replies that she didn't know, but she did believe.

Actress Gloria Foster, who played the Oracle in the first film, died before the completion of her filming for the third and was replaced by actress Mary Alice. Her changed appearance is addressed in the film's plot, and the directors state they had coincidentally explored such a change early in the script's development.

Sound design

Sound editing on The Matrix trilogy was completed by Danetracks in West Hollywood, CA.

Soundtrack

Main article: The Matrix Revolutions: Music from the Motion Picture

In contrast to the movie's predecessors, very few "source" tracks are used in the movie. Aside from Don Davis' score, again collaborating with Juno Reactor, only one external track (by Pale 3) is used.

Although Davis rarely focuses on strong melodies, familiar leitmotifs from earlier in the series reappear. For example, Neo and Trinity's love theme—which briefly surfaces in the two preceding movies—is finally fully expanded into "Trinity Definitely"; the theme from the Zion docks in Reloaded returns as "Men in Metal", and the energetic drumming from the Reloaded teahouse fight between Neo and Seraph opens "Tetsujin", as Seraph, Trinity and Morpheus fight off Club Hel's three doormen.

The climactic battle theme, named "Neodämmerung" (in reference to Wagner's Götterdämmerung), features a choir singing extracts (shlokas) from the Upanishads. The chorus can be roughly translated from Sanskrit as follows: "lead us from untruth to truth, lead us from darkness to light, lead us from death to immortality, peace peace peace" [1]. The extracts were brought to Davis by the Wachowski brothers when he informed them that it would be wasteful for such a large choir to be singing simple "ooh"s and "aah"s (according to the DVD commentary, Davis felt that the dramatic impact of the piece would be lost if the choir was to sing 'This is the one, see what he can do' in plain English). These extracts return in the denouement of the movie, and in Navras, the track that plays over the closing credits (which may be considered a loose remix of "Neodämmerung").

Reception

The budget of the movie is an estimated US$150 million, grossing over $139 million in North America and approximately $427 million worldwide,[2] roughly half of The Matrix Reloaded box-office total. The Matrix Revolutions was released on DVD and VHS on April 6, 2004. The film grossed $116 million in DVD sales.

The film received mixed reviews from critics. The Matrix Revolutions received a score of 37% on Rotten Tomatoes, a movie review aggregation site (with a score of 14% when filtered to include only Top critics).[3] The film's average critic score on Metacritic is 48/100.[4]

The Matrix Revolutions grossed $83.8 million within its first five days of being released in North America.[5] The film's opening was not as commercially successful as the opening of its predecessor in the series. Some have attributed this to a more subdued marketing campaign[citation needed] compared to that of The Matrix Reloaded, which was considered a summer blockbuster event.

The film was criticized for being anticlimactic.[6][7] Additionally, some critics regard the movie as less philosophically ambiguous than its predecessor, The Matrix Reloaded.[8][9] Critics had difficulty finding closure pertaining to events from The Matrix Reloaded, and were generally dissatisfied.[10][11] The film's earnings dropped 66% during the second week after its release to theaters.[5]

The Matrix: Music from the Motion Picture ·The Matrix: Original Motion Picture Score ·The Matrix Reloaded: The Album ·The Matrix Reloaded: Complete 2 CD Score ·The Matrix Revolutions: Music from the Motion Picture ·The Matrix Revolutions: Complete 2 CD Score ·The Animatrix: The Album ·Enter the Matrix: Original Soundtrack from the Videogame ·The Matrix: Path of Neo - Music from the Video Game